Custom heavy lift AP Quad

nilsen

Senior Member
I have made a quite a few flying machines over the past 3 years but this one is the most custom yet as I have taken apart my 680 sized hex and am converting it into Quad or if needed a co-axial octa.

This is going to be used to lift a GHT 3 axis gimbal and a NEX size camera (specifically an a6000).

I've been collecting the parts for a while but something arrived which made it work starting the build.

CUAV pixhack
This is a FC based on the pixhawk but mechanically rebuilt and put into a much nicer package.
Hex to Quad-1.jpg

http://team-blacksheep.com/products/prod:pixhack_autopilot

Very nicely packaged, small and extremely high quality
Hex to Quad-2.jpg

Size compared to the Xiami Yi camera
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Lovely connectors
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Beautifully machined case
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I'm really impressed
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Comes with the GPS, LED module, cables, voltage and current sensor
Hex to Quad-7.jpg

So the Tarot FY680 is a hex and there are no mounting holes for making a quad so I have to go custom on this one, taking the frame and converting it into a symmetrical quad.

So far I have:
Turnigy Multistar 4225-390KV
Turnigy Multistar 45Amp 6S esc
Foxtech supreme CF 15x5.5 props
10 000mah 6s battery
Foxtech retractable landing gear.
 

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nilsen

Senior Member
I started, with the frame, removing all of the clips which held the booms in place, unfortunately I used the strong locktite and had to drill out the screws.

Hex to Quad-2.jpg

I used the square in the center plate and the pre-made holes and a long ruler to mark 45 degree angles boom to adjacent boom.

I then used a pair of callipers to mark distances hole to hole.

Hex to Quad-5.jpg

Here are the arms attached, this thing looks great already.

Hex to Quad-7.jpg

Attached with a M4 nut and bolt.

Hex to Quad-8.jpg

Here is a prop compared to a 5inch prop.
Hex to Quad-9.jpg

Motors and props.
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Motor and mobius
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Cyberdactyl

Misfit Multirotor Monkey
I love watching large builds and their flight videos. I would love to build a big 1000mm octi. I just can't justify a reason.
 

nilsen

Senior Member
Thanks Gents, I'll be sure to post the progress.
the only thing worrying me at this point is the CF Supreme lite props are very flexible, no doubt they are strong but they are quite flexible.

I'm also thinking that for transportability sake I could use these for easier transportation, has anyone seen or used them?
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
See, it's batteries like that that make me build smaller! It's all fun and games until you price those monsters . . . $90/ea . . . and I don't buy one battery at a time :p I've built ENTIRE Quads for less!

Nilsen, It's turning out to be a beautiful build. Thanks for letting us build vicariously through you ;)
 

nilsen

Senior Member
See, it's batteries like that that make me build smaller! It's all fun and games until you price those monsters . . . $90/ea . . . and I don't buy one battery at a time :p I've built ENTIRE Quads for less!

Absolutely true, these batteries are so expensive, especially cosidering it's "only" 10000 mAh.
I should get 24 mins of hover flight time (according to ecalc) without the gimbal.
We will wait and see.

Nilsen, It's turning out to be a beautiful build. Thanks for letting us build vicariously through you ;)

Thank you kind sir, I gladly accept your vicarious building.
 

nilsen

Senior Member
A little update time on this project.

I have been super busy at work as I started a new job but in the spare time I was able to make some progress on this beast:

Motors mounted to arm
DSC04683-1.jpg

ESC wires coming through the tubes, if I make this an X8, it will be a tight squeeze.
DSC04684-2.jpg

The ESC's ready to go, I think I would like to get smaller ESC's, these are only 40Amp but 6s, and if I consider the size of the kiss 30 amp also support 6s I think, hmmmm.
DSC04685-3.jpg

I flashed BLHeli onto these guys, and soldered the motor wires directly onto the ESC's without splicing.
DSC04686-4.jpg

Luckily there is enough space to house up to 8 ESC's in this configuration, it makes for a very clean installation.
DSC04687-5.jpg

The power module from the Pixhack
DSC04688-6.jpg

XT 90 connector! Here I was living my life thinking there are only XT60 connectors but in one month I discovered XT30 and XT90.
Mind = Blown
DSC04689-7.jpg

With the top on.
DSC04691-9.jpg

With the pixhack mounted. The battery will go above the FC.
DSC04693-10.jpg

12V UBEC for the Gimbal
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The bottom of the copter with the PDB (with a piece of Duct tape over it)
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A test fit of the prop.
DSC04700-16.jpg

Ok Don't laugh, this is a very very large battery on this relatively small frame.
DSC04701-17.jpg


Ok so onto the CUAV PIXHACK.

As I mentioned earlier it is incredibly beautiful and well made BUT.... It doesn't work. I couldn't get it to connect at all and had the smell as though the "magic smoke" escaped.
Luckily Teamblacksheep have agreed to take it back and send me a new one. What this means though is that I cannot fly yet :(

Maybe I'll stick a NAZE32 on to it for testing :)
 

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jipp

Senior Member
looking good.. while the sounds of 25 mins flight time would be nice.. the price not so much. heh.
keep up the good work.
chris.
 

nilsen

Senior Member
looking good.. while the sounds of 25 mins flight time would be nice.. the price not so much. heh.
keep up the good work.
chris.

Yes indeed, it's part of my work though so I can justify the cost.

I wired up a Naze32 to the esc's today and tried a test flight, it was mega twitchy and nearly crashed just after lifting off, I think I'll wait a little. I think the props need some balancing as well.
 

nilsen

Senior Member
Well here is the fairly successful maiden.


I really want to have a proper go at it again but I was worried about those expensive props breaking if I put any more abuse on them.

That landing gear is the foxtech FPV retractable landing gear.
 
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jipp

Senior Member
congrats on the maiden. looks like at first you need to give it more throthel just to get it up in the air so the board could stablize.. but it looks like its gonna need some tuning now. thanks for sharing.

also it looks like the carbon props maybe stronger than i gave them credit for.. i was thinking maybe get some cheap gem fans or something to tune with them switch over to carbon for final tuning.

you are making progress tho, and that is what is important.

chris.
 

Ocean

Member
Nice maiden, even if the Naze didn't perform the best. I also have to say your English is impeccable, even for a Swiss!
 

nilsen

Senior Member
congrats on the maiden. looks like at first you need to give it more throthel just to get it up in the air so the board could stablize.. but it looks like its gonna need some tuning now. thanks for sharing.

also it looks like the carbon props maybe stronger than i gave them credit for.. i was thinking maybe get some cheap gem fans or something to tune with them switch over to carbon for final tuning.

you are making progress tho, and that is what is important.

chris.

Thank you Chris, I know you should always "punch" to take off but I am so scared that if those things are full speed and it goes wrong then it would be disasterous for the props, however in hindsight it wasn't so good anyway. I don't know of any 15inch props which would be considered cheap ;-)

I actually flew it in "rate" mode as I don't trust the tune on that naze, it is literally boris-B's Betaflight tuned to my QAV250 which is currently in pieces as it has a broken arm... again.

Nice maiden, even if the Naze didn't perform the best. I also have to say your English is impeccable, even for a Swiss!

Thank you, I am actually not Swiss, i'm a South African, I just moved to Switzerland 7 years ago with my work but I will still take it as a compliment :)
 
one thought: these big guys are much less likely to tip on launch or land when center of gravity is brought down a bit. Just use some dummy weight (old hard drives, wooden box, etc.) to balance out that big battery and approximate the weight of the gimbal/camera. That way, your tune will not need to be redone once you add the real payload. Gimbals tend to mess with autotune, so that is another benefit of using dummy weight.

Nice rig!
 

nilsen

Senior Member
one thought: these big guys are much less likely to tip on launch or land when center of gravity is brought down a bit. Just use some dummy weight (old hard drives, wooden box, etc.) to balance out that big battery and approximate the weight of the gimbal/camera. That way, your tune will not need to be redone once you add the real payload. Gimbals tend to mess with autotune, so that is another benefit of using dummy weight.

Nice rig!

You know what, I didn't ever think of that. I did consider strapping the gimbal to it but that would have been a terrible idea but the though of using weights didn't cross my mind :eek:

Thank for the suggestion, I will try that ASAP.